50p
Volleyballin’
Covid-19 mitigation strategies have limited every students’ athletic opportunities this year, but the volleyball program has been extremely fortunate in that our unique sport allows us to practice and mimic games in a way that is similar to previous years: separation on opposite sides of the net permits social distancing. Mitigation strategies such as sanitizing the balls after every serve, practicing drills in our cohorts, and washing hands before water breaks helped keep us all safe.
Admittedly, the coaches and senior players did have pre-season doubts. We worried that the motivation and effort from the team would be lacking if we were not working toward a goal like a provincial title; these concerns were quickly quashed as every player proved she would not allow the pandemic to subdue her spirit. Our coach, Ms Fougner, is proud to say that she “never had to worry about attendance” because everyone was eager to show up.
When most schools’ volleyball programs were not even running, we were given the chance to run an intrasquad season of sorts. Our Varsity group was bigger this year, to allow enough girls to make the intrasquad teams “Energy” and “Incredible” who could play against each other in evenly matched, refereed scrimmages. The gameplay allowed us all to improve beyond what practices could offer, and bind us as a team.
Our Showcase game was also intrasquad, and open for the girls enrolled in volleyball to spectate. We played in the same groups as we had for our mini-season, and it ended up being a very close game. We are incredibly fortunate for our opportunities this year, and for Ms Fougner and Ms Manton, who deserve all the credit for the fun we had this term. Abby S and I, as senior players and Co-Captains, are beyond proud of all the girls for their commitment to making the most out of what could have been a terrible season but ended up being one of the most enjoyable of all.
You’ve been blocked Covid!
Chloe C, Allard ‘21
Admittedly, the coaches and senior players did have pre-season doubts. We worried that the motivation and effort from the team would be lacking if we were not working toward a goal like a provincial title; these concerns were quickly quashed as every player proved she would not allow the pandemic to subdue her spirit. Our coach, Ms Fougner, is proud to say that she “never had to worry about attendance” because everyone was eager to show up.
When most schools’ volleyball programs were not even running, we were given the chance to run an intrasquad season of sorts. Our Varsity group was bigger this year, to allow enough girls to make the intrasquad teams “Energy” and “Incredible” who could play against each other in evenly matched, refereed scrimmages. The gameplay allowed us all to improve beyond what practices could offer, and bind us as a team.
Our Showcase game was also intrasquad, and open for the girls enrolled in volleyball to spectate. We played in the same groups as we had for our mini-season, and it ended up being a very close game. We are incredibly fortunate for our opportunities this year, and for Ms Fougner and Ms Manton, who deserve all the credit for the fun we had this term. Abby S and I, as senior players and Co-Captains, are beyond proud of all the girls for their commitment to making the most out of what could have been a terrible season but ended up being one of the most enjoyable of all.
You’ve been blocked Covid!
Chloe C, Allard ‘21